Matt Logelin again

I just wanted to mention again how compelling Matt Logelin's blog is (I posted about Matt previously; he lost his wife Liz to a pulmonary embolism, a mere 27 hours after their first child, Madeline was born). See the story here. He just posted an entry about how heartbroken he was when Madeline's crying at 2:30 a.m. interrupted a dream he was having about speaking with Liz again, telling her everything that had happened since she died. (Man, his wife Liz was beautiful. And he was obviously totally in love with her. See, for example, the entry that begins with this picture.)

If you want to follow along with Matt and Madeline's daily adventures (he's a wonderful writer and a gifted photographer), you can follow the RSS feed I've set up: mattlogelin.

Edited to add: See also this really beautiful photo montage set to music, created by a professional photographer who donated her time to take pictures of Matt and Madeline.

Two Mirror cards: The Bitter Glass and The Mirror of Erised

I had mentioned previously my favorite poem, Yeats' The Two Trees. Part of the poem reads:

Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile,
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For ill things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings; alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

I realized that my soulcollage deck needs a picture of The Bitter Glass, since so much of my understanding of my own history with depression is tied up in this metaphor. I realized quickly that a way to get a picture of the bitter glass the demons hold would be to check out illustrated editions of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," because that story begins exactly the same way: with a mirror held by demons that distorts and makes ugly everything that is reflected within. I quickly found a perfect one; this is another card made by simply scanning and pasting down the image. I did have to monkey with the proportions a bit to make it fit the card.

I may use this image again to make another card, cutting out the mirror and just a few of the demons holding it, and showing it reflecting the Barren Tree.

The Bitter Glass - Council I am the One held up by the demons that distorts everything reflected in me. I twist beauty into ugliness, nobility into coarseness. I was created for the amusement of the evil and cynical, to taunt the good. I tell nothing but lies.

I also wanted to have a card for the Mirror of Erised. I have long been fascinated by the concept--not just because the scene where it first appears is one of the most poignant in all of children's literature. I have been fretting for several years, trying to figure out what it is that I want to do with my life. I've joked with Kij that I need a crystal ball to discern what I really want. Or rather, I need the Mirror of Erised to show my own desires to me. Perhaps it is because I have been a caretaker for so long--I have been working so hard to make other people's needs possible that I have totally lost my ability to discern my own.

Mirror of Erised - Council I am the One that shows not your face but your heart's desire.

This card was really fun to make. The description, of course, is taken right from the book. I pinched the image of the Mirror from Deviant Art, and overlaid it with an actual photograph of myself taken from the back (I stood silhouetted against a very bright window, which is the way I got the light outlining my figure to look right).

I like this, because the image-Peg is looking in the Mirror, but because her body blocks our view of the mirror, what she actually sees within is a mystery--just as it is to me in real life.

Strength - Council card

Here's my Strength card. It's based quite closely on traditional Tarot imagery.

Strength - Council I am the One who is powerful. My gifts are fortitude and courage. Self-control and patience guide my wisdom. I grant the ability to call up inner resources to meet whatever challenges may be encountered.

Here's the Green Man - Council

The Green Man - Council I am the One who lives in green and growing things. I flower and flourish and bring forth fruit and then die with the coming of winter, only to spring forth renewed each year as the seasons turn. I am primeval and mysterious.